← Rebel News Podcast
Rebel News Podcast
EZRA LEVANT | On October 19th, send those bastards a message they’ll never forget!
00:27:13
A major new poll on Alberta independence delivers a reality check, but also reveals a powerful undercurrent that could reshape the debate. Listen to audio-only versions of RebelNews+ exclusive shows like the daily Ezra Levant Show, the Gunn Show, and audio versions of our DAILY livestreams along with other Rebel News long-form videos and interviews.
Loading summary
Transcript13 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hello my friends. We just did a massive 3,000 person public opinion poll in Alberta on the independence referendum. I'll take you through it, show you the good, the bad and the ugly. But first, let me invite you to subscribe to Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com click subscribe and not only do you get great content, but you support Rebel News because we don't take a dime from the government and it shows one more thing.
- [00:27]
B
Are you wondering how you can support your favorite independent news outlet while also sharing your opinions in a unique way? Head over to revenuestore.com and check out our merch. We have got incredible T shirts, hoodies, mugs and winter gear we ship internationally. And if you use the code ALEX10, you will get 10% off your order. Go and take a look today.
- [01:17]
A
Tonight, our third party campaign group commissioned a massive poll on Alberta independence. I'll tell you the good, the bad and the ugly. It's April 30th and this is the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious bug. As you know, for a variety of good reasons, we've set up a third party campaign group in Alberta. Now it's not a political party, it's just called a third party. It's a. It's more like a super pac, as they would say in the states. It allows us to get involved in the petition gathering phase and the campaigning phase of the referendum on Alberta independence that's expected to take place on October 19, less than six months from now. We're carefully following the law. The super PAC that we're calling act for Alberta is following all the rules. Our chief reporter, Sheila Gunn Reed is the contact person for it. And we have a financial agent and a special bank account were doing weekly filings with Elections Alberta. So we're being very compliant. Anyways, one of the first things we did with the super PAC was commission a poll. A whopping 3,000 person sample size in a province like Alberta. That's a really rigorous poll. And we asked all kinds of questions for what pollsters call crosstabs. That's where you compare various characteristics. For example, we could compare support for independence with sex, with age, with income, with region of Alberta. And then we tested a few other ideas like immigration or pipelines or crime. I'll explain why in a moment. Let me start with the most striking news from the poll. If the referendum were held today, it would fail. The question do you support or oppose the idea of an independent Alberta separate From Canada, as you can see on page 21 of the poll, 26.5% strongly support that and 8.7% somewhat support that. So that's the four. But look at the opposition. It's about double. 53.3% strongly oppose it and actually only 2.3% somewhat oppose it. If you're against it, you're very against it. Now on page 22, there's some variation. As you can see in some of these crosstabs, young men are much more likely to support it. Also, high school or people in the trades versus university, that would be 43.4% for high school education versus basically 19.8%, half as much for university grads. On page 23, you can see the real divide. In Alberta, rural support is 53.5%. On combining the the strong support and the somewhat support. Compare that to Calgary and Edmonton in the mid-20s, about half as much. So if a referendum were held today to decide on separation, 60.1% of Albertans would vote remain, 28.1% would vote to leave. So even some people who earlier said they want independence would. When they're asked how they would vote in the referendum, they won't vote for it. I don't know out of fear or lack of readiness.
- [04:44]
C
But why?
- [04:45]
A
Well, my hunch is I don't think independence has been properly explained. I don't think the objections that people would have have been overcome. People ask legitimate questions like what happens to my Canada pension plan? What about the borders? Can we still travel to B.C. and Saskatchewan as we normally do? How about the airports? How about the postage stamps? How about the currency? These are all legitimate questions and all of them have legitimate answers. But I just don't think people have been educated about it yet. As opposed to, say, Quebec, which has been talking details like this for 50 years. Everyone knows how Quebec would go. And I want to be gentle here. Who have the messengers been in in the independence campaign so far? If you've been following on the last six months, who have been the advocates? We know who the advocates are for the Remain side. Former premier Jason Kenney, former cabinet minister Thomas Lukashuk, the NDP leader there, Nahid Nenshi. They've been the Remain voices. Who have the Leave messengers been? Well, I like Jeffrey Rath. He's been on our show before, but he is a cowboy straight out of central casting. I think he'd admit that maybe he's not the best ambassador to other demographics like soccer moms. And to be very candid, and I like Jeff but going down to the states repeatedly to meet with the Trump administration and then blabbing about that to the whole world, but keeping the details of the conversation secret. That's, again, something that the Mark Carney war room could only dream up. That's just not going to convince soccer moms that this is a good idea. So I think we've been looking at the results of six months of messaging and a messenger that we're pretty scary to people. And, you know, I don't even think that's what this referendum is about. Here, let me give you a hint about what it's about. This is my point of view based on our poll. But let me quote a leftist named Michael Moore. He's that commie who made a bunch of documentaries in the 1990s against General Motors, against firearms. He's a bit of a wackadoodle documentary maker. He's been at it for about 30 years. But listen to him. This was 10 years ago talking to Democrats in Ohio, why he thought Donald Trump was about to win. He was one of the only lefties that got it. He understood what voting for Trump actually meant. Take a listen. Take a couple of minutes here. And while you're listening to him talk about Trump, think about Canada from the point of view of Alberta or Saskatchewan or any of the regions that you can't see from the CN Tower in Toronto. Take a look.
- [07:27]
C
Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant because he's saying the things to people who are hurting. And it's why every beaten down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov cocktail that they've been waiting for, the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. And on November 8th, election day, although they lost their jobs, although they've been foreclosed on by the bank, next came the divorce and now the wife and kids are gone, the car's been repoed. They haven't had a real vacation in years. They're stuck with the shitty Obamacare bronze plan where you can't even get a fucking Percocet. They've essentially lost everything they had except one thing. The one thing that doesn't cost them a cent and is guaranteed to them by the American Constitution, the right to vote. They might be penniless, they might be homeless, they might be fucked over and fucked up. It doesn't matter, because it's equalized on that day. A millionaire has the same Number of votes as the person without a job? 1. And there's more of the former middle class than there are in the millionaire class. So on November 8, the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain and take that lever or felt pen or touch screen and. And put a big fucking X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives, Donald J. Trump.
- [09:28]
A
Now, Trump has governed better than Michael Moore predicted. But I think half the reason people support Trump even today is just to send a message to the establishment that the only way they could. Well, hello. So look at page 26 of the poll. Do you think the way Alberta is treated by the federal government in Ottawa is fair? 49.7% say it's unfair, which is a lot higher than the number who say they want independence or vote for a referendum. Hey, what's the number one issue in Canada today? Well, it's obviously immigration. Look at page 35 of the poll. Nearly 49% of Albertans agree that Alberta needs to take control of immigration away from the fools in Ottawa. Same thing with the extremely woke, weird, lenient criminal justice System on page 38. More than 40% of Albertans want to take over the criminal justice system and get out of the hands of these liberal judges. You see my point? You see what I'm getting at? If the message of this referendum campaign is let's build a utopian country, well, you're going to have people with questions. I'd have questions. People will take the devil they know, rather than vague answers and a touch of secrecy, which is what they face so far. And what they face so far plays to the fears of the 51st state. But if you say, you know, this referendum is the first opportunity you've had to fight back against Ottawa in your lifetime. It's what Quebec got to do. Twice, by the way. And it helped them win. Either way, it's win, win. If Quebec would vote to go, they'd have their own country. But even if it would be close, they could still boss around Ottawa pretty good and get everything they want, don't you think? I mean, if Alberta does secede, I think it would be amazing. I think that the few technical issues could be ironed out quickly and it would soon be the Monaco of North America. It would be so wealthy, unhooked from Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney and the rest of them. Imagine a life without them and just Alberta being Albertan. But even if the referendum only gets, say, 35, 45, even 49% of the vote, well, it's a message to Ottawa that they cannot ignore. That's the way. That's the ballot question. That's the way to campaign. Whenever Mark Carney raises your taxes, whenever Mark Carney shuts down your oil jobs, lies to you about pipelines and tankers and an MoU, whenever he opens up the floodgates of mass immigration or issues an insane court ruling or permits Islamic terrorists into our country, this is your way to hit back. It's your only way. A peaceful, legal way that our cousins in Quebec get to use. And dammit, we can use them too. On October 19th century. Send those bastards a message they'll never forget. That's your campaign message. And if you look at the poll, it just might win. To learn more, go to actforalberta.com. You know, I learned a terrifying statistic in the United Kingdom a few years ago. More British Muslims had signed up to fight with ISIS in the Islamic State than had signed up to join the British Army. Let me say that again. More British Muslims went to fight for the enemy terrorist group, then joined the army to fight against the terrorist group. That's one of the challenges of having people who have a different sense of loyalty, in that case to the Islamic State, not the British state. Well, in Canada, we've chosen an interesting path when it comes to meeting. Military recruitment numbers were dramatically down. They first had a big push to bring in transgender recruits that really didn't go anywhere other than a black eye from a PR department in putting the condoms. Sorry, not condoms. Tampons in men's bathrooms. That was sort of a source of global laughter. But they've switched gears from trying to get transgender people to join the military to getting foreign nationals, people who are not Canadian citizens. In some cases people who have only been in Canada for a few months. In some cases people who can barely speak English or French. In some cases, people who can't stand other ethnic rivalries. This is not just a theory. This is the subject of an explosive report in Juneau News by our friend Cosmon Jerja, who reviewed a confidential internal Canadian Armed Forces memo on one such recruitment cohort where 83% of non citizens devolved into ethnic infighting. It was a battle between the Cameroonians and the Cote d' Ivoire people. And of course, none of them appreciated taking orders from or acting as peers with women. Joining us now is Cosmen Girja Cosman. Great to see you. What an Amazing scoop. This document is so shocking. You were just telling me before we turned on the cameras that when you first saw it, you were skeptical that it was even real. You thought maybe it was a hoax. Tell me about the document.
- [14:59]
D
Yeah, absolutely. So this was written up as a report by the commandant of the Canadian Forces Training and Recruit School, which is essentially a program where they take in recruits and train them to be Canadian soldiers. But particularly in this document, it talks about the bmoq, which is the Basic Military Officer Qualification Program. And that program is to enter essentially the military leadership. You do an officer rank. You have to have certain prerequisites like education requirements, etc to enter that rank, but a little bit of a background. In 2022, the Liberal government lifted prohibitions on permanent residents entering the Canadian Armed Forces. So after that decisions, permanent residents could be recruited into the Canadian Armed Forces. And actually the Canadian Armed Forces engaged in a recruitment drive to try to get as many of these permanent residents. Now, this document was essentially an evaluation of how that played out. It covers the span of, I believe, the year 2025. It was released earlier this year. Well, not released, sorry, pardon me. It was actually, you know, submitted by this commandant to for review earlier this year in January. But it essentially shows that a flood of these permanent residents came into officer training programs. And one Quebec platoon saw up to 83% permanent residents, as you mentioned. And this caused huge issues, interpersonal issues, between opposing factions. So the Cameroonian and the Ivory coast people didn't get along. Also, issues with women, as you said. A lot of these people, the report notes, did not have never lived with a woman before that wasn't a family member. And they couldn't respect women, they couldn't take orders from women superiors. The other interesting thing is a lot of these permanent resident recruits are significantly older than the recruits you see from Canadian citizens. Canadian citizen recruits are around like 21, 23 years old on average. But these permanent resident recruits are well into their 30s, but also up to age 45. And they also had issues taking orders or following direction from younger superiors, even male superiors. So, yeah, it was hard to believe that this thing was actually real because it details, it's essentially a gold mine and it confirms all of the concerns that yourself had, myself had and everybody who was talking about that this was a bad idea to let permanent residents into the military and it's going to be a disaster.
- [17:57]
A
Yeah, I mean, especially if I understand correctly, some of these folks had only been permanent residents for like three months. They had not yet gone, achieved Citizenship. They have not pledged their loyalty to Canada. You know, you're talking about quarrels between Ivory coast and Cameroon and, and Canada really doesn't have much to do with either of those places. But there's also, there could be Chinese citizens who are associated with the Chinese Communist Party. There could be people, as I mentioned before, who are associated with Islamic terrorism. And I say that because I know that the government was trying so hard to meet their quotas and the trans recruitment didn't work, that they lowered their vetting. One of the things we didn't even talk about is the fitness levels. I guess that's expected. If you're bringing in 40 or 45 year old men, they're not going to have the same fitness as a 20 year old guy. I want to tell you, Cosman, whenever I see a fat cop, a little voice inside my head says, oh, Ezra, there's another career alternative for you of this rebel news thing. Does it work out? I'm chuckling because the idea of a fat cop is so. It's such a contradiction in terms. But that's what we've got here. We've got people who don't speak English or French, who don't get along with other ethnicities. They're not loyal to Canada as per a citizenship pledge. They cannot be near women, let alone take commands from women. They're just not Canadian. I mean, I understand the need for mercenaries. I mean, the United States, Canada often hire private contractors to assist in war zones. I get it. So sometimes you're dealing with people who are not your nationals. I get it. But at least in the case of hiring a mercenary, you're hiring a fighting machine, someone who knows what they're doing here. It's all I could picture this being a very silly CBC commentary, CBC comedy show. Like, you know, they had that Korean corner store show. They could do a silly sitcom of this, you know, fish out of Water, Cameroonian and Cote d' Ivoire and their, their white female commander, they refused to salute. It sounds like a comedy on the cbc.
- [20:08]
D
Yeah, absolutely. And the government, you know, removed these standards for fitness tests. They also removed like they made the academic portion of the test actually easier as well. You mentioned, you know, allowing transgender people into military. They also loosened up uniform rules. They did essentially everything they could to make it as easy as possible to join the military. And I've spoken to a lot of guys who were at this school actually training people around the time they change this. There's a lot of people coming forward since we released this report with really astounding tales that we hope to report soon. But they're essentially saying that these recruits are of such poor quality that the military is essentially doomed. One guy actually told me who, who was at this school training people. He said he's afraid that the deaths the military is going to report domestically are going to outnumber the ones that they report on deployment, that is abroad. So he's essentially scared that these recruits are going to start, you know, misfiring, shooting people on training grounds, causing all sorts of accidents, driving these massive trucks. Like if you've ever seen a military truck or live near a military base, these things could kill people. They could squash any electric vehicle on the road that's zipping by. And he has a genuine fear that these changes are going to put not only other service members in danger, but the Canadian public as well.
- [21:47]
A
You know, I was joking about Kim's convenience. Sort of a goofy sitcom with, you know, all the requisite dei, but that's not even silly enough to keep up with the truth here. I'm reading your report. Recruiters noted that as a result of these changes, the recruiting school is experiencing significant changes in candidates basic capabilities. Here's the key line that the government is modernizing medical standards which permits candidates to enroll with specific medical limitations. I mean, I can imagine one guy has a limp, another guy has narcolepsy, that he falls asleep, you know, that's his. What's your special power? I fall asleep every hour and I. And I mean, if they're specifically permitting disabilities and medical conditions, specifically lowering it just to get numbers, it sounds like, you know, like, I don't know, Mighty Ducks or something. You're assembling this quirky team and they don't speak English and they don't respect women and they're getting into fights and they don't know which end of the bazooka is the pointy end. I mean, I'm laughing and I'm making fun of it, but this, I have your first reaction too. This is so silly that no serious country, no serious country would abide this. Let me ask you, is there any chance that the government will blink on this? Because, boy, David McGinty, the defense minister, was so proud. And the media, the regime media were so proud to write the story. Hey, guys, recruitment is ahead of schedule. They've smashed their quotas. And it was only in the fine print that you saw they were letting in fat, old, racist, illiterate migrants.
- [23:41]
D
Whether the liberal government is actually in a change of direction, I'm not so certain about that. What we do know is that they have actually taken some steps to kind of like vet some of these permanent resident candidates. I believe they made a requirement recently to make sure that they've at least lived in Canada for two years instead of the three months apparently that they were letting in. That seems to be a newer introduction, but I don't. So from what people have told me is that the top down direction to staff is to focus on numbers and making sure that the quality, quantity keeps going up. So if that's their priority, they're going to sacrifice the quality of the recruits that they get. And another thing one of these trainers told me is, is we're essentially keeping out the true warriors, the Canadian warriors, from joining the military. And we're letting in these guys who can't even handle weapons, can't even tie their shoelaces. And I quote that, that's what he told me. It's, it's really troubling. And whether the Liberal government decides to reverse this direction, I don't think so because as you said, Prime Minister Mark Carney, the Defense Minister have been lauding what a great job they've been doing increasing these so called record number of recruitment. But in reality when you look at the stock that the Canadian military is getting and the other thing I think about is like once these recruits go into deployment in other countries it's just going to even further downgrade Canada's reputation in international allies eyes.
- [25:24]
A
Yeah. Viewers will recall we showed a clip from the parliamentary committee where I think it was the deputy minister said that after failing out, some of these migrants live on the base. Like they fail the basic training, they get drummed out, but hey, stay for free on our base, in our housing. It's the strangest thing. You know, the United States has really changed its approach to the military. There's no more transgenderism which was a thing in the States. Also they've renamed their military, they've renamed the department, it's now the Department of War, not the Department of Defense. Their choice for Secretary of War is a really active guy himself who likes to film himself actually working out with the troops. He's very aggressive. He uses aggressive language and he uses the phrase warrior. We're warriors. There's no more wokeness left. There's, you know, there still are women in the US military of course, but they're not emphasizing the quotas or the dei. It's cultural. You can feel the shift at least in their identity. And I think we're going the exact opposite direction. And I think you're right. I think that it's going to demoralize actual war fighters who would sign up for the Canadian military. I think it's going to turn us into a continued laughingstock. I note that we have not participated in various NATO training exercises lately just because we're not able to. Long ago, we abandoned Maple Flag, which was like our top gun. I think this is just like a death rattle, and it makes me sad. I'm laughing. I'm just thinking of goofy things for this sitcom, but it's not funny at all. We used to, after the Second World War, we had the third largest navy in the world. Like, we punched above our weight. And now this last word to give you cosmonauts.